pending: Incorporating Clean Water Branch requirements into the program; developing a guide book on best management practices

Waikīkī Beach Restoration

Since 1985 the Waikīkī shoreline has experienced significant beach loss due to long-term chronic erosion. The State has recognized that given the chronic erosion potential simply importing sand is not a permanent solution. There is a need to develop a program for regular beach maintenance using nearshore sand as a means for periodic beach nourishment. This “recycling” program offers a more efficient method for maintaining a recreational beach while mitigating some of the environmental effects of imported sand to the Waikīkī ecosystem over the past sixty-plus years.

OCCL is proposing to change the state land use conservation district subzone of tax map key (TMK): (2) 5-1-006:156 at Pāpōhaku Beach, Kaluakoʻi, Moloka`i from the general subzone to the protective subzone.

State Submerged Lands extend three miles out from the shoreline; mariculture operations in this area require a Conservation District Use Permit (CDUP) and Management Plan approved by the Board of Land and Natural Resources. OCCL is actively working to develop a consistent set of management, reporting, and permit criteria that can be applied state wide. The following agencies have current permits for facilities in Hawaiian waters:

Hawaiʻi Oceanic Technology (CDUP HA-3495) – located offshore of Mālaʻe Point, North Kohala, Hawaiʻi. The permit allows for the deployment of twelve 54-meter diameter “oceanspheres” to cultivate ʻahi tuna (yellowfin, Thunnus albacores, and bigeye, T. obesus). The capacity of one sphere is estimated to be 1000 tons of `ahi per year. The first sphere has not yet been deployed as of January 2015.

A third company, Kona Blue Water Farms, operates outside of the State’s three-mile boundary, in waters under federal jurisdiction.

Astronomy Facilities

OCCL is monitoring the progress of two new astronomical facilities that have recently received permits from the Board of Land and Natural Resources: the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST; formerly known as the Advance Technology Solar Telescope, ATST) at the Haleakalā High Observatories Site on Maui, and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in the Mauna Kea Science Reserve on Hawaiʻi.